1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a system for registering expense information in a management apparatus based on operations in an image processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, digital multifunction peripherals (MFPs) having hardware resources such as a scanner or a printer are installed in offices or other facilities to be used for daily office work including processing such as copying, printing, and facsimile transmission.
In the offices or other facilities where such MFPs are installed, expenses for using a MFP, such as a printing expense for copying, an expense based on time of occupying the MFP for the copying, and labor costs of a user who has carried out the copying, may sometimes be charged to a client.
For example, in a law firm, expenses generated because a lawyer has used the MFP for a certain legal matter may be charged to a client who is a request source of the matter. As a system for charging such expenses to the client who is a request source of the matter, there is known a system that enables a lawyer in charge to manage the expenses by inputting expense information to a computer and charge the expenses to the client at the end of the matter.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-59254 discusses an image forming apparatus for tallying and outputting, when a user logs in the image forming apparatus and carries out a copying operation, the number of copies for each work (planning department work or engineering department work) of the user.
Conventionally, however, the expenses generated by using MFPs have been registered in the computer manually by a person in charge of the work at the company or at the office. As a result, the registration operation of the expense information has been very burdensome for the person in charge.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-59254 discusses the image forming apparatus for tallying the number of copies for each work of the user who logs in the apparatus. However, the image forming apparatus discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-59254 only prints the tallied number of copies in a paper medium or other medium while not executing any processing such as registering in an expense management apparatus.